Tuesday, July 21, 2009

REPUBLICANS TRY TO DEFEAT OBAMA'S HEALTH PLAN GRANTING COVERAGE TO ALL AMERICANS

The Republicans seem like they are going all out to defeat Obama's reform of health care. They want to delay, amend, discuss, procrastinate, all with the aim of killing the first serious attempt to extend health care coverage to everyone, including the 40+ million Americans without any health insurance.

Think Progress reports today in a story written by Ben Ambruster that the Huffington Post obtained a secret memo put out by the Republican National Committee:

"After following GOP pollster Frank Luntz’s advice to demonize President Obama’s health care plan by distorting it, many conservatives have recently embraced a new obstructionist tactic: delay any reform measure going through Congress for as long as possible. The Republican National Committee is giving the strategy its official stamp of approval. In a 12-page memo obtained by the Huffington Post, the RNC urges Republicans to “engage in every activity we can to slow down” health care reform:

"In particular, the 12-page memo makes the case that it is a Republican priority to slow down the consideration of health care reform before it can become codified.

"“The Republican National Committee will engage in every activity we can to slow down this mad rush while promoting sensible alternatives that address health care costs and preserve quality,” the memo affirmatively declares."


The Republicans hated Social Security Retirement Income when that was passed in 1936; they hated Medicare in 1966; now they hate extending health insurance coverage to the uninsured. The Republicans call it "socialized medicine" when we Democrats insist that everyone has a right to full and competent health care. They would rather keep the 40+ million Americans without health insurance than have the country commit to make sure that everyone is insured.

2 comments:

  1. I'm not sure where you get your information.. but a quick search on google (not really a bation of extremist republicans) shows that the memo in question is not secret, ut was passed out to the media a while ago (and copies of it are still floating around on different web articles..)
    Also to correct your facts: Social Security is not just for retirememnt, and most of Congress, democrats and republicans were "on board" with it. Medicare was created in 1965, not 66 as part of the Social security act of 1965 passed by both democrats and republicans.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks to JB for the above comment.

    As to the Republican memo giving talking points and tactics to defeat the public option, I relied on Think Progress citing a Huffington Post article calling it a "private memo."

    Second. I never said that Social Security was exclusively for retirement. Check the above post.

    Third. I concede Medicare was passed and signed into law in 1965. But so what?

    Fourth. Many Republicans have historically opposed SS and they were always against Medicare. Even today they whine and rail about how it must be cut back.

    ReplyDelete